I FINALLY Built My Own Wildlife Pond - May Garden Tour

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]One year ago, I moved into this property with a mission to create a 1acre sanctuary for nature. And today, in this glorious sunshine, I want to take you on a journey and show you our journey here so far at the Georgian Wildlife Garden, and show you everything that I've created in the last 12 months, what is currently in the process of being created, and what is yet to come. So stay tuned because I'm going to be bringing you some of the wildlife in real time that is already calling this place home. Show you some of the habitats including this wildlife pond that I've built recently and I've been teasing in my shorts. So let's go take a look and see what we can find.

[00:00:40]Okay, so I thought I would start where we finished off, which my last video showed me planting this little shady border, which is a nice mix of a few perennials. If you haven't seen it, I'll put a link to uh the video at the end of this one uh showing some of my favorites, including this honesty, which is looking rather splendid at the moment. These taking quite nicely. Uh I am just giving these a drop of water.

[00:01:07]that fox glove are just wilting slightly. Uh I didn't get round to watering them last night, but I'm just giving them a bit of water to establish and then yeah, I'll be bringing you updates on this area. So, I won't explain too much about that. But this is a little shady border I created. As I say, I'll put a link to that video at the end of this one. Or at any point, feel free to go back to the homepage, check out the Georgian Wildlife Garden playlist, and you can catch up on all the videos I've made from this place over the course of the last year. if you've missed any or if this is your first video you're seeing of mine. So, that's a little shady board. I got my fox gloves, cow slips, all sorts in there. Honestly, really looking lovely.

[00:01:48]Um, and this is just down the side of the house.

[00:01:52]Um, and as I move along here, this is a future project. this area in general.

[00:01:58]This is a whole like kind of shady woodland border which uh yeah, I've got high expectations for, but uh yeah, not for a while. I've I've got plenty of other things to do. Unfortunately, there is all this sort of plastic and membrane underneath, which is a complete pain. Um so, I'm going to have to take all that out before I do any further planting in this area, which the previous owners put down um to act as a weed suppressant.

[00:02:24]Well, yeah, you can see how successful that was, uh, with the bark mulch that was added on top of it. So, yes, this is a lovely block that I showed in the last video of the hedge wound work that I'm really looking forward to seeing flower around sort of June time. Uh, it's really spread. There were only half a dozen plants. There must be now at least 30, 40 plants maybe in here all the way along there. So, very much looking forward to seeing this spread. Uh, you can see it's going right over there as well. So fantastic. I've even got a few bird boxes that I haven't yet put up which are going to go on the side of the house which is somewhere up there. Um and up there just an interesting fact for you is the old insurance plaque for the fire insurance that they used to have. Now that plaque is dated 1824. Let me see if I can get a climb up on the wall and get a bit of a zoomed in view for you. Uh there you go. So that says Yorkshire insurance, I think. I'm not sure whether that's Ripon Cathedral or what, but uh anyway, that is a plaque that they used to put on houses.

[00:03:34]You weren't expecting history lesson, were you? They used to put on houses of this age. It's dated 1824, which is when we thought the house was actually um constructed. We've learned since that it's actually about 1770s, 1780s, we believe. We don't actually probably know, but long story short, that's a plaque that they used to put up if people had fire insurance to cover them if the house caught fire. Of course, back in those days, no electricity.

[00:04:01]Um, so everything was candle light. So, fires were a constant problem. So, um, people used to have one of these plaques so that the fire brigade knew when they turned up if somebody had insurance whether they would help them or not.

[00:04:14]sounds a bit brutal as we expect the fire brigade to help whether we've uh yeah paid them any money or not these days of course but yeah back then was very different and the reason it's so high um is because people used to steal these so they used to go up obviously nick the plaque put it up on their own house and then say they got the insurance if it ever burnt down so there's an interesting bit of history for you love the old brick work here right jump down off this wall and let's carry on our tour into the garden Um, I must show you all the cellar at some point or the basement depending on what you call it. Uh, is really really fascinating. Here are the pillars from a previous video. You may remember where I Oh, Nikki discovered uh many dozens of ladybirds which were um hiding out the winter there. And this tub was used to actually cover them over. This tub is now full of my daughter's finds from this place. So, we've got things like this old part of a what we believe is a just smashy Joel. uh an old part of an old teapot.

[00:05:15]Um and then you we've got all sorts all bits of jars, pottery. Yeah, there's so much interesting stuff here. Bits of random glass. And then you got stuff like this which is really gorgeous.

[00:05:29]Lovely fine thin china from many years ago. Many of you may be getting really excited at this point. This looks like it was a rather large um it's thick quite thick. So, it's uh I'm guessing probably a water jug or part of a water jug or the bowl that a water jug would sit in and people used to have them on their bedside tables. So, anyway, that's a nice collection of all the pottery and things that my daughter has found during her excavations at this place. So, and this is the Philadelphia that got rather or has got rather large. Uh the Meadow Browns were using it last year. So, I'm very pleased that we've kind of let it go and it's now going to flower profusely by the looks of it in the next month or so as we get into June. It's the 1st of May now. But, um, okay, let's head down this way.

[00:06:23]And in the distance over there, I can see already a or there was I think it landed a brimstone, a male brimstone. Now, bear in mind those bushes or keep those in your mind. Um because yeah, I've got something to show you on those which is rather special in a little while. Um these are the borders that I created. Excuse the pots and things on the patio. I've still not got round to clearing up a load of the planting that I've been doing this year.

[00:06:57]Um these are the borders that I created last year, which are really coming into their own now. They still need a cut back and a bit of a going through to get out some of the grasses that have encroached. Uh, but I'll do that at some point.

[00:07:09]But before we go any further, I just want to update you on this box here. And I'm not going to hang around here for too long because in that box there currently, I'll put a little clip in.

[00:07:21]There are five beautiful blue and modeled black and brown eggs of a pair of jack doors. Not quite the target species I was aiming for. Uh, obviously that's a Tory owl box. I was aiming to get Tory owls in here. We do have Tories in and around the garden. Um, but there are a pair of jack doors in there at present and we're very pleased about that and they are a delight to see going in and out. I did check went up with the ladder the other day when they were both off the nest. gone for a bite to eat somewhere. And I went and had a look and yeah, there are five beautiful eggs in that box. So, looking forward to all the squawking and tantrums that come from that box in due course from the youngsters. And there is a green finch.

[00:08:08]Actually, if you saw that, I did say I'll be bringing you some live wildlife.

[00:08:12]Uh that looks like a female greenfinch.

[00:08:14]The green finches are really doing well in the house or in the house. No, they're not in the house. Uh they're in the garden.

[00:08:23]Isn't that gorgeous? If you can make that out, sat on that middle part of the branch. Um, and she is waiting to go on this feeder, which has been a huge success. And our very own Wilder Garden bird seed has been proving um very appealing to all of the local birds, everything using these feeders.

[00:08:43]It's just funny enough. Now, I heard the the jack of uh one of the jack doors.

[00:08:48]Ah, that looks like the male's just turned up as well. There's a pair of green finches up there.

[00:08:53]There's the male on the branch with that lovely kind of yellowy wing feather that they have.

[00:09:02]Yeah, gorgeous. And the female is just there.

[00:09:08]So, they are on territory now. So, they'll be nesting in the garden somewhere. Haven't found the nest yet, but haven't been around to look too hard if I'm honest. Um, yeah, that female desperately wanting a bite to eat. And there goes one of the jack doors. Two of the jack doors. So, they're waiting to come back to the nest. So, I'm going to move on. Um, hopefully we might see them. And I'm going to just move down now to our little ring camera feeding station. Now, many of you may have seen Oh, there we go. Tory mining bee, one of my favorites.

[00:09:41]They're doing really well in the garden now. They've actually taken up residence. Has that one gone in a hole?

[00:09:47]Is it about to go in a hole?

[00:09:49]There are tons of holes. I'll show you in a minute. Um around the garden where these guys have been making their burrows into the very well- drained sandy soils that we have here. So yeah, lovely to see. Cracking little insect.

[00:10:05]But yeah, back to the feeding cam. Many of you will be used to possibly seeing this kind of an angle here on one or two of the shorts. the short I did of Percy the pheasant shortly of which if you're really nice to me I'll go and show you.

[00:10:19]Of course you are. You're all lovely to me all the time. You all leave wonderful comments. So yeah, I'll go and show you Percy shortly. I think he's over on the other side of the garden. So this is the Ring camera feeding station that we set up. And I'm just going to pause for a second and show you some of the birds that we've had here at the Georgian Wildlife Garden over the last few months because there's some really really cool additions. We've had things such as um the jack doors have been coming down obviously. Um Percy has been here feeding a lot. We've had um very recently, just this last week, a pair of yellow hammers. I was extremely excited to see those. Uh Nikki sent me a clip of those while I was at work. So I was yeah very jealous that she was watching on the ring cam live time um of these pair of yellow hammers that were coming down and eating these sunflower hearts. Absolutely love sunflower hearts. They were eating those. And then uh just the last couple of days we've had a rook turn up as well which I've never had a rook in the garden.

[00:11:19]Absolutely love rooks. They're a bit of an ugly duckling if you like. Uh they're not the most attractive of birds, but they are beautiful in my eyes. Um they have this big gray beak compared to the jack doors which have a quite a shortish kind of stumpy beak. Um of which that was a jack door there. It might just come out this side of the tree. Maybe not. I think it flew into the tree actually. Yeah. Oh, there's a wood pigeon. Uh yeah, jack doors are waiting to come back to the nest, I think. So, I'm going to move on. But yeah, we've had loads of stuff on this feeding station. I will do more videos of what we've had in videos to come. Um, so I'm going to just spin round briefly. And again, I apologize for the state of my habaceous border. That was a jack door call.

[00:12:04]I'm determined to show you one of the jack doors. I think if I step back, I'll probably be able to show you them. Um, yes, this border is a bit of a state, but look at this. This is the Nepita, the six hills giant that we've been selling a lot of recently via the online shop.

[00:12:19]We've got oxide daisies I planted in here. Red Campion, which is now looking beautiful. Just started flowering in the last few days. Uh, a little bit of forget me knot at the back there. Budlia and all sorts. But, um, yeah, there we go. I think if I go up to that tree there, can you see in the middle there?

[00:12:40]That is one of the jack doors.

[00:12:43]Yeah, bit difficult to see, but anyway, right, I am going to leave them in peace now. Um, so yes, the borders need a bit of a sort out, but really coming back quite nicely. I've left all my leaf litter um in here for anything to uh want to use it. There we go. Live feeder cam. Boot it.

[00:13:05]Sorry, this tour may take some time. Warning, make yourself a cup of coffee. Go and press pause. Go and make a cup of coffee or pour yourself a pint if it's in the evening time or a glass of wine, whatever you prefer because I've got lots to show you. Anyway, right, moving on to here. Look how much this grass has grown. Unbelievable.

[00:13:29]Incredible. This stuff is nearly 2t tall now. Um, doing very well. Well, obviously all through here is where I planted my um my little mini orchard on this raised bank. Things are coming to life now. Um we've got this, which is one of the damsons. Uh no, it's actually a Cambridge gauge plum. Um again, these are a bit sort of spindly specimens. Not too wonderful. So, yeah, I'm I'm going to look after them as best I can, but uh yeah, they're taking some feeding and watering. Uh it's a full-on mission watering everything at the minute. It's so dry. I've not had any rain for weeks and weeks. Um this part of the garden.

[00:14:12]Yeah, I'm just kind of leaving for now.

[00:14:14]I'm letting it do its own thing. Still got my Tory box to put up uh which is going up in that spruce tree up there when I get time. Uh loads and loads of herb in here that I was showing you on the last video, which has this beautiful little pink flower. Um, which is, yeah, gorgeous. Look at that. Beautiful. The orange chips. Use it as an extra sauce.

[00:14:40]Um, so that's spreading nicely through here along with very pleased to see. One of my faves, lots of garlic mustard. Um, I haven't done an egg count yet for orange chips in here. It's still a little bit early. I've not seen a female this year yet. Not to say they're not about, but the females being white um and very rarely land. For those of you that have been trying to photograph orange chips, you will know how notoriously difficult it is. Um so I've not checked any of these for eggs.

[00:15:10]Usually they lay the eggs on the main stem or just underneath the main flower head. Um trying to focus. Come on. Bit of a windy day today.

[00:15:22]So yeah, it's usually somewhere around the flower head. Can't miss it. Bright orange egg, white when it's first laid, then it goes orange. So yes, the garlic mustard spreading nicely through here.

[00:15:32]But this is yeah, kind of a work in progress area. I'm not intending to do anything anytime soon with any of this area. Um, really not. Got a bit of a lean on the Scots pine that I planted. I might have to add a bit of a steak to that. Uh this was part of the planting that I did in here along with this spindly looking specimen which is an older bookthornne. Now this older bookthornne is the lava food plant for one of my faves, the brimstone which I just saw a minute ago. And just there, look, can you see if I go into this mode? Hopefully you'll be able to see there's a little greeny white egg on the underside of that and that is the egg of a brimstone. Female's been around this bush this morning. I haven't done a full egg count yet, but I I I will do sorry I have done a full egg count and I'm going to show show you some really absolute clusters of eggs on one of the other brim brimstone one of the other bushes shortly uh because they have been absolutely peppered already and it's still early in the season. say 1st of May. Um, so that's one that is already attracting butterflies and that was only planted just over a month ago. Then we've got this lovely lilac which is in flower now. I didn't plant this but let me just have a quick smell.

[00:16:59]Oh yeah, lovely beautiful flowers on this lilac. The holly blue seems to hang around here quite a lot. Holly blue butterfly. And um the flowers are quite good for insects, quite good for bees.

[00:17:10]And uh yeah, I've even seen my orange tips, my orange tips, orange tips um nectaring on um the lilac, which is uh the Latin is singa or syringe, however you say it.

[00:17:26]Okay. So, I'm just going to wander around this way because I've got a very special guest that I'd like to introduce you to very shortly. So, we're going to have to just tone it down a little bit.

[00:17:37]I'm going to speak a bit quieter here because I don't want to disturb one of the new inhabitants. It's not in this bank, but I'm just kind of showing you some of these that I planted as well.

[00:17:48]We've got things like this uh black currant um which went in which is now flowered. Uh the pear trees are doing wonderfully. They're all greened up nicely and they've actually finished flowering now. pears. The apple in the middle, the ashme's kernel is now flowering. Oh, on cute. Look at that little orange tip.

[00:18:13]Fantastic.

[00:18:15]Off through the woodland. It's coming back again.

[00:18:22]Absolutely brilliant.

[00:18:24]It's due to be 23 degrees this afternoon. It's not far off now, to be fair. Must be 20. Uh, so yeah, a very good day for butterflies. I'm expecting to bring you more butterflies as we go around the garden. Um, nettles already looking a bit tired. I mean, it's just so dry, especially with this kind of open southacing woodland edge glade. Um, but I'm obviously leaving the nettles for things like the peacocks, uh, the red admirals, the commas, and the small tortois shells to lay their eggs on. So, there's lots of clumps of nettles around the garden.

[00:18:59]Um, then we move around here to another older bookthorn which I planted which I'm not sure has any eggs on.

[00:19:09]I haven't really checked this one yet, but this is a bit more in shade. So, I'm not expecting amazing results from this, but I'm sure the females will just run out of spaces to lay their eggs because I'm very pleased to announce that my egg count the other day is already 133 eggs that have been laid on about eight shrubs. There weren't even any on this one or the one I've just shown you.

[00:19:35]So, uh, yeah, I'm anticipating over 150 eggs at least, maybe even 200 eggs this season to have been laid. Uh, some lovely little self-seeded forget me knots down there, which are just gorgeous. Very good plant for shade.

[00:19:53]Now, I'm going to move past this bush rather swiftly, but show you on the way what has made its home under there because it is just I don't want to say cute, I don't want to say adorable, but you know what I'm getting at. And it's the wife or one of the wives, should I say, of the bird that just called from over there. So, let's have a quick wander past and then you can see what is under here because it is in fact the female feeasant.

[00:20:33]She is currently on 11 eggs which are going to hatch soon. So, I'm not going to stay here for long, but I wanted to show you Mrs. Percy as she's now been called by many of you that have commented. And she's sitting tight on those eggs, not wanting to move. I'm actually going to be very soon setting up a live camera somewhere around here so that we can film hopefully these eggs hatching and then the chicks hopefully developing in the coming weeks. So, more on that soon. I'll talk more about that in a minute, but I'm just going to move on because I don't want to disturb her. She's got a perfect spot under there.

[00:21:15]So moving under the holly tree as we move further around the rowan is just about to come into flower or is just now flowering. As you can see, beautiful tree, the Rowan tree. This one was here in the garden already. Absolutely love it. Laden with berries last year or last autumn and I planted little blackberry. Sorry.

[00:21:39]Yes, it is a little blackberry at the bottom of it, which is doing nicely. For those of you that saw some of my earlier videos, that is uh the merin thornless, I believe, sprouting away nicely, and I want that to ramble up through the uh snowberry that is there. I've also got another blackberry down here, which is growing nicely. I think this one is the I've forgotten the name now.

[00:22:10]It'll come to me.

[00:22:12]But anyway, that's going to ramble up through there through the snow again.

[00:22:16]And then over here, I've got some more wildlife to show you. There he is. The man himself, Mr. Percy, who loves it in this dappled shade in this part of the woodland under these trees. He's lots of cover and he's usually doing this little soft sort of bit like a chicken uh as he goes around the garden. So, he usually gives himself away quite easily. Um let's put this on wide angle so you get a bit more in the shot. Um so, we'll go say hello to Percy in a minute. He's quite tame. Um I've got the black thorns down here that I planted uh back in March. They're doing nicely. They're all leafing up nicely now. Um, oh, had a bit of a catastrophe here. We had an asht tree that completely went over. Um, it was already dead. I knew it was dead and it was underneath this one. No, it was a holly tree. Sorry. And, um, it was covered in ivy. Great little habitat.

[00:23:20]And it just blew over in the really bad winds we had a few weeks ago. So, I had to clear that up. But, there are some positives from that. Uh so this this stump here well this part of the tree itself is actually propping up if I show you the ivy that was around the tree which you thought was a a really cool habitat goes right down to the ground there. So I've just kind of left that standing as a bit of standing dead wood and habitat. So the ivy is still growing up and around that. Um so I thought that was quite cool so I left it.

[00:23:56]Um, and the branches of which or the two top parts of which we put over here.

[00:24:02]Nikki had a thought that because they were such beautiful timbers, we would place them in the garden where we could see them. So, we have. So, I'll show you those in a sec. Uh, I've got this silver birch, the downy birch, um, which is growing nicely now. That's finally establishing itself. Uh, we've got the roses that I planted under here coming along really nicely, too. Oh, Percy's venturing out.

[00:24:24]Look.

[00:24:26]I mean, I know these birds are non-native, but what a gorgeous bird. I mean, honestly, if you know, you can imagine discovering these when the explorers were traveling around the world and moving birds around and wildlife in days gone by. Imagine first seeing one of these or being one of the first humans to see these and thinking, "Wow, no one else has seen that." Um, not that you'd really know that back then. Uh yes, this Rowan coming onto the trees again. Back to trees for a second. Uh is doing rather well. Um that is about to flower. It's only it first year, so it's it's doing well for first year. It's budding up nicely. Uh and that's doing really well. Obviously, I had all my wild daffodils under here um back in March time, which were looking stunning.

[00:25:15]Um I've got my wild pear on the edge there. That's doing well. And we're going to come around to those tulips in a minute. Um, but yes, here is the rosa that I planted, which is the Japanese. Oh, and it's already flowering. Look at that.

[00:25:32]Well, not flowering, but sending a flower bud out. Isn't that just gorgeous? Wow. And these things smell divine. That's the reason we planted them. And Nikki wanted a reminder of her um gran, and so did I. And so we planted these in here to remind us of the beautiful scents that were in our grandparents' gardens at the time. Uh so I've got another one down there which is uh another reg. I think that's the white one. It's white or pink. One's white, one's pink. And they're both really good smelling roses. Uh, and here is that beautiful or two beautiful twisted stems of the holly tree that I cleared the ivy off and now they're just sat here for us to marvel at. Really gorgeous.

[00:26:18]Absolutely love them. Uh, they're just incredible things.

[00:26:23]So, yeah, rather than chop them up, use them as firewood or something like that, we thought we would uh, yeah, put them in the garden where we could see them.

[00:26:34]Percy's going to continue to uh walk in front of me, I think, now for the rest of the tour.

[00:26:40]I am going to be coming on to the pond.

[00:26:42]I know so many of you are wanting to see the pond. So, I am going to be coming to onto that, I promise. Um, but there's a few things I want to show you before that point. Um, this again is the woodland area that that I've not done a lot with. I planted a couple of hazel in. Got hazel. Uh there's a golden rose, my wild pear on the edge, another hazel here, and then we've got the field maples, wild service, um yeah, these big lumps of black, by the way, is all off cuts of liner. What have we got there? A live butterfly. Not sure which one that was. I think it was a green vein white. If I come around here and just turn around, you can see Yeah.

[00:27:23]Sorry about the off cuts of liner lying about. I've still not had chance to clear those up, nor have I had chance to clear away all the pots and boxes and things from all the planting around the pond, which I will show you. I promise.

[00:27:35]So, yes, these are the older bookthorns I planted. I've got one, two, three. Uh, this one is not doing terribly well. I mean, it's only just leafing up, but brace yourself. Look at this.

[00:27:50]Oh, wait. Not that leaf. No, there was one leaf. I'm sure it was on this one.

[00:27:57]Oh, well, they've already they've already changed color. Look at these ones here. These little eggs. I posted a picture on Instagram of this the other day. And those eggs are the brimstone eggs, or some of them. Uh there's more eggs that have been peppered onto here.

[00:28:14]Look at that.

[00:28:16]Trying to get it focused for you. Those green.

[00:28:20]They almost look I always think whenever I see these they always look like they've just been like fired out of a gun and just stuck themselves into a leaf like little bullets. Those green eggs I don't think I don't think you could ask for anything cooler than that in a garden myself. I know they're just eggs of varying butterflies. But look I mean it's just peppered this soon. Poor thing is going to get eaten alive literally. Got one, two, three on that left hand leaf. And we got four, five, six, seven. Another one under there. Eight.

[00:28:55]Nine. Yeah. Oh, what have we got there?

[00:28:59]Uh, red admiral. Very nice. I think that is a red admiral wanting to lay eggs on the nettles, which I was just about to mention.

[00:29:07]Oh, it is. It's laying eggs. Look at that. Live live red admiral laying eggs on my nettles. I don't know which egg she just laid on. Which egg, which leaf she just laid on, but it was one of the nettle leaves here. So, what about that?

[00:29:24]Fantastic. I was just about to say about the nettles that I've left in this patch. Um, excuse me. Of which there are three varieties, three species. We've got the white dead nettle, which is sort of going over now. It's been out for weeks. It's just amazing this stuff. It is an annual, but it's so good for wildlife. Um, so I've had lots of things using that to nectar on. There's a brimstone on it earlier. Um, and then round here we've got I mean it's all this this stuff is out before the white dead nettle. This is all the red dead nettle which is going over which is a lovely kind of pinky red color when it's in flower. Had small torto shell on here in March. Flowers a bit earlier. Um, but we've got this kind of nice succession here. So, where we've got the white dead nettle now in flower, um, and we had this was all red dead nettle in here, um, it's now gone into ground ivy, which is this gorgeous little blue plant, uh, which again the orange tips use, many insects use as a laval lara source.

[00:30:30]Um, and then also I found and discovered last year this greater selandine which I'm very pleased to have in the garden.

[00:30:37]And I've not had it in a garden before.

[00:30:40]And um I love that. But it's it's uh it's spread this year. There's another one. There's another one here. Um and that's a really big clump this year, which is nice. And I got my budlier and a little broom I planted in there, which needs a drink. My hawthornne still not coming to leaf. It's It is alive. I checked it recently, but uh yeah, still not coming to leaf yet.

[00:31:02]And I'm going to move you around to the fading tulips.

[00:31:08]which are just amazing. I mean, these things were in flower or have been in flower for weeks, but what about that for a color in a garden? Just gorgeous.

[00:31:17]I know they're not native, but I have seen bees using them. Look, they've got a nice open center.

[00:31:25]So, there's plenty of stammans and pollen in there. Um, nice nectar source as well. But these things have been in flower for just weeks now. And um yeah, Nikki and I really love them. Um Nikki twisted my arm into buying them and I'm glad she did. Uh I'm not usually one for tulips. Uh but these things are just something else. And then over here we have the remnants of what was the the wild tulip earlier on in the year which are they've gone to seed now. Um but uh these things were just stunning as well.

[00:31:57]So they are in and around here. You can just see the remnants of them.

[00:32:03]Uh so yeah, hopefully they'll seed and then they'll make more wild tulips for next year.

[00:32:11]Um right, let's move on, shall we? So into the desert that currently is uh the construction site for what has been the wildlife pond, which is over there that I'm going to show you, I promise. Uh so I've got off cuts of liner and fleece.

[00:32:26]I've got all sorts of stone, boulders.

[00:32:29]Um so this is all going to be meadow in time. This is all going to be sewn as meadow in the coming months, not until September now. There's no point now as we're into May. It's just too dry. Uh it just won't germinate the seed. Um a nice collection of pots and boxes.

[00:32:45]Gives you an idea of the scale of what I've been uh planting. Um quite monumental. Still got lots of plugs of different things down here that I'm going to grow some on for the online shop. We've got devil's scabius, less naped, and oxide daisies.

[00:33:00]Yeah. So, tons and tons and tons of stuff there. Um, lots and lots of log piles and sticks and things here, which I'm going to be using in a future project that I'm going to show you in a second. Um, which is going to be over here. Now, if I go this way and I can show you what I'm going to be doing in this part of the garden along the moan path, which I started mowing. I've only moaned these paths twice actually now. But, uh, in a minute, we're going to go off through that part of the garden. I'm going to show you something down there for one of the subscribers that has been asking about a really cool habitat that I love and I'm trying to encourage. There. Did you hear that, Jack? That was one of the jack doors coming back into the spruce.

[00:33:50]I don't I can't see it at the moment, but anyway. Yes. Um so under here, if I just pan left for a second, we did have lots of snakes head fertilleries. They've gone over now or been um pecked out by Percy and his wife or nibbled by one or two of the rabbits that are somehow getting through my fence that I need to investigate.

[00:34:11]Um, so yes, the fertilleries were doing rather nicely down here. Have done rather nicely down here. Hoping for more of those next year. It's only the first year, so early days yet. Uh, this area is where I'm in time going to have um another bank. So, I've got one bank over there. Part of that is going to come over here to create this kind of bit of a meandering woodland walk through here, which is going to be the stumpy, which I'm very much looking forward to creating. I've got loads and loads of timbers and things and logs that I've been hoarding over the years that have fallen off trees in the yard or, you know, customers have wanted me to get rid of, but I'm definitely not advocating going out into your local woodland and picking up lumps of wood and taking it from the countryside. So, uh, yeah, please don't do that. Uh, but I'm I'm going to be creating a stumpery.

[00:35:05]I'm already growing on lots and lots of pots and things around in the other part of the garden around there, uh, which is going to be the formal garden, which will be another project in time, uh, that I'll be coming on to. Um, so yeah, I'm going to be creating a stumpy through here as a bit of a woodland walk, planting it all up with lovely, lovely plants, as you can imagine. So, let's take a wander this way. Um, the wild garlic. I don't really want to squash the grass, but I'll try and get through here to show you. Last autumn, I planted lots of bulbs of wild garlic, and they are now coming up. And in fact, look at that first one. These are the leaves. So, they're not doing much this year, but they will grow and establish for next year. This one is even flowering. Look. So, there we go. Some wild garlic in flour. You can eat wild garlic. You can eat all parts of wild garlic. You can eat the flowers, the leaves, the roots, the stems. Got more coming up there. Look. Yeah, it's kind of It's all coming up. Um, yeah.

[00:36:10]Fantastic. There you go. There's another one there. Look.

[00:36:15]So, yes, very much looking forward to this getting established in here. Some of you may be thinking, "My god, Joel, what have you done to yourself?" Um, I know wild garlic spreads. I know it creates a block, but that's what I want because it is such a good nectar source.

[00:36:29]Now, it's all the way over to here.

[00:36:30]Look. Um, all the leaves again I left through here. It's been a great little habitat. And all the rocks I put in when I put this fence in, uh, have now got sort of covered in leaves. This is great Newton frog habitat. Absolutely brilliant. Um, and I just want to show you briefly the blue bells because they are such a delight at this time of year.

[00:36:52]These are a hybridized variety. I didn't plant them. They're not true native blue bells. They're not Spanish blue bells.

[00:37:01]They're kind of a mix, but there's a lot of pollinators that use them. So, I'm not going to do a lot with them. Some people people might be screaming at the camera guy or the lens the screen going, "You need to dig them out, Joel, and plant natives." Well, I could, but to be honest, I'm not going to because I just love them in there.

[00:37:22]and they've naturalized so beautifully.

[00:37:24]Um, I don't want to disturb that habitat. And plus, all the Tory mining bees are in there. So, I don't want to dig all them up and their burrows that they've got. Um, and I have planted over here. Let's head over that way now.

[00:37:36]I'll try not to stand on I don't want to squash the grass.

[00:37:44]Got some fox gloves that are in here.

[00:37:46]Look. Um, these will be flowering in June. One there. Another one there.

[00:37:51]Another one there. Now, I didn't plant these. These are just here. So, interesting to see what color they are.

[00:37:56]So, yes, this is part of where the woodland walk will be on the stumpery jack door again. And yeah, the blue bells, I planted a load of nated blue bells in a drift from that gate round to meet up with the edge of where I started the wild garlic planting. So, I'm hopeful that they will flower next year.

[00:38:15]So, through here, some of you may recognize this bit. This is where I planted my woodland border or my cppus belt should I say. Um where all the trees that I planted back in March are now coming into leaf really nicely. Um and doing rather well. So we we'll head we'll head back down this mo path and I will go and show you the pond shortly. I promise. Um but this is the cppus belt that I wanted to show you that is doing rather nicely now. Oh, got a bit of a bit of a branch down off the birch which is sort of lying on the uh dog woods and things. So, all my branches I I'm just kind of stacking up over there. Then later on in the year when it gets to autumn time, I'm going to make a load of um dead hedging and brash piles with them. Um planted some common valyan in here the other day, couple of weeks ago now, which seems to be doing okay. I've been watering that.

[00:39:13]Got another one here. Um, which I'm going to be hoping will flower. I'm hoping will flower soon. Another branch there. Look, I love it when trees drop branches because it provides me with loads more loads more structure, loads more debris that I can use elsewhere in the garden.

[00:39:32]Um, dogwood's doing really nicely, as are these spindle, which look at that.

[00:39:37]They are going to flower this year, which I'm very pleased about. I've not seen these until today.

[00:39:43]And spindle is a really beautiful plant.

[00:39:46]It's has this amazing pink and orange flower on it and berry later on in the year. So, I can't wait to show you that.

[00:39:53]Uh ground in here doing very well. This is what it looks like in its preferred setting, which is a bit more shade.

[00:39:59]That's Percy squawking away at me. I'm sure we'll bump into Percy again. Don't worry. Um they have these beautiful little blue flowers, pinky blue, uh purpley almost like lilac colored flowers. very good for bees and this creates a wonderful ground cover in here. I'm going to try and look to grow some of that for the online shop for for next spring cuz a lot of people have been asking about it. More branches.

[00:40:26]And yeah, the summer snowflakes have gone over now. These are these were the summer snowflakes. They're native bulb here in the UK that I planted all through here. They were flowering.

[00:40:36]They've gone over. They've done really well this year. And then my privet that I planted for um the ringlet that I hope to see again this year, the ringlet butterflies is just developing flowers just in time for June, mid late June when the uh ringlets emerge. So I'm really hoping this will provide a nice nectar source for the ringlets.

[00:40:58]So yeah, that's the copus belt. I'll obviously update you more on that as the year progresses. And that's the edge of the or what will be the um Come on, Joel. You can do it. Um Stumpy.

[00:41:16]Thank you. And we'll go through into the main part of the garden, which is the dog zone. So, that's where I put all the fencing up so uh the dogs can't kind of get under the hedge and uh yeah, annoy the neighbors too much. But uh yeah, so that's why that's there. But in here, I've got a strip that I just kind of mow a path through. Um, it's quite nice. I just mow a path through here. Uh, and then it comes through and into this kind of woodland edge, which I leave, which is now getting to be full of of cow path, which I love. Nikki loves, uh, which is, um, flowering now. Look at that. Just beautiful.

[00:41:59]Stunning.

[00:42:02]So, that's all through here.

[00:42:05]See, the rabbits have chopped some of it off. Look, nibbled some off. So, I'm going to have to see if I can find out where they're coming in. I don't really want the rabbits eating all my plants in the garden, ideally. I know they're part of it. Um, some of you might say, "Well, it's just nature." And yes, it is. And I don't mind things getting nibbled at all, but um yeah, not when it's plants that I'm trying to establish in the bank around the pond, which I'll show you shortly.

[00:42:32]uh is part of an old towel that Frank's ripped up. Nice to drag around the garden. Those of you that have got dogs will know what it's like having dogs. Um especially if it's like kind of Labradors and things and German shepherds. Oh, there's a swallow.

[00:42:49]If you can hear that just over the top of the hedge. The swallows arrived um two or three weeks ago. And yeah, I was really hoping to uh get some boxes up for them. I haven't got around to doing it yet and create a bit of um uh a sort of a false habitat for them, a false roof for them to nest under on the barn out the front of the house, but I haven't had a chance to. Look at that contrast. By the way, I wanted to show you this of that lime green of the beach trees that is now coming out of the beach. It's this beautiful row of beach that we've got in the garden that stretches from the back of the house down to near where the gate is. And uh the color of those leaves now on that against that blue sky. Absolutely just beautiful.

[00:43:39]Look at that. The wind's dropped. Barely a breath of wind now.

[00:43:44]So yeah, there's the Cyprus, the Montter Cyprus that I very much love and adore, of which from the top of the other day was a missile thrush singing its heart out.

[00:44:09]I was very pleased to uh to hear that.

[00:44:11]Not a common bird nowadays. Uh and here we go. This is here's one I talked about earlier. This is one of the holes that's a bit bigger than a Tory mining bee. It could even be a red tail bumblebee possibly.

[00:44:26]Um they just made a hole in this lovely kind of sandy well drained soil. And um yeah, there's loads of those over near the beach trees.

[00:44:37]So very nice to see. And yeah, I'm try checking for more. There's another one here. Look.

[00:44:45]Yeah, that's a consequence of having well- drained soil, which I'm not used to because every other house I've lived in in the past has been absolutely solid clay mostly. Uh, and then this is the view from the back of the garden.

[00:44:57]Oh, there goes a magpie. Um, now I've brought you down here because not to show you the view, although I have done a few poke you through the fence. I have to put this fencing up, by the way, because uh the dogs would otherwise um venture off into the fields. uh they can all jump rather well being uh shephering types. Um so yeah, I had to put this six foot netting up just to extend it.

[00:45:18]Obviously I didn't want to spoil the view completely, but it is a lovely view. Uh and this is where I see the barn owls. The barn owls are often quartering over that kind of distant field over there. That's where I've done shorts of the barn owls in the past. I'm pretty sure they nest in that barn that you can see. Um I've got a skyllock singing at the moment. I just don't think the mic will pick up. But anyway, I brought you down here because there's a lady called Shos Shana um who comments a reasonable amount and she's been following the channel for a while and she said to me, Joel, what can I do to attract slow worms and grass snakes to my garden? And the answer is, drum roll please, this stuff. Well, I say this stuff, it's a strategically positioned this stuff.

[00:46:03]Now, this is just quite simply a piece of the liner off cut that I've got. You can use tin, you can use roofing felt, you can use anything, but obviously being coldblooded animals. Uh the reptile family, they need to bask to warm up in the sun's warmth. Now, where this is here directly, south facing, south is is that way. Uh east is that way. So, it nicely gets the morning sun as the sun comes around. Um so, I've put this here on top of what is if I peel this back, my grass cutting heap. So, it's not very big at the minute because uh I I just cut the grass just for you guys this morning. Um so, we could have a wander through the woodland. I don't do much grass cutting, but it's nice to mow a path through so we can have easy access without trampling on stuff. Um but I put this grass cutting here because I really want grass snakes and slow worms to to come and make this their home. Um because they will use these field edges. There's dikes around here. There's a dyke runs out across there. Uh and they can get in through sort of gaps in this wall here. here.

[00:47:06]There's a gap in the fence there. Uh so there's plenty of access for them. But the grass snakes will lay their eggs. Um they lay eggs and uh they will lay these eggs in a grass heap like this and then you put this over the top just to incubate them. So they like to have it really warm. So this is a basically an incubation chamber in the making. Um so that's the plan here. I'm hoping I've only just put this down recently, so there's nothing under there at the moment, but I'm really hoping that that the combination of that plus the grass underneath will attract um some slowworms and grass snakes to this area.

[00:47:42]I've also got lots of sort of piles of sticks and branches and twigs and things here for hedgehogs, but also for for basking on. I mean, hopefully one day common lizards might turn up and that sort of thing is ideal for them. They love warming up again. you know, bits I've left down here, this south facing edge, you know, kind of bits of bark like this, which are it's it's just brilliant. And all the logs that you saw in the main part of the garden a moment ago, they came from this area. They were here from the previous owners. Um, where they'd obviously cut things down and chopped branches up and just chucked it all down here. I had to I had to clear.

[00:48:16]You couldn't get through any of this.

[00:48:17]This was all logs and branches. There's a few there still. Again, good habitat.

[00:48:21]Um, but I thought this is a great spot for the grass cutting heap. uh and the neighbor actually puts their grass cutings outside um of the boundary and the edge of the neighbor's field. So, uh a combination of those. So, I'm hoping that with the addition of this black sheeting that will attract some of the grass snakes and slowworms. So, Shashana, um that is how you attract them. Uh and obviously have it so it's facing uh east ideally. So, this is east is directly behind the camera now. Um, so that then that way they can warm up in the morning sun. That often you'll find them kind of either curled up on top of it or um just underneath it if you lift it. So I'm hopeful in time I'll be able to show you some of those. I might put a few more kind of refugeia um tins and things down on this edge uh for them to warm up under as well. It has to be on the edge of vegetation like this because they they like to be able to kind of if you lift the matting or the tin up, they they want to then be able to shoot back underneath the vegetation uh to evade predation. So, uh, not that I'm going to predate them, obviously, but, uh, yes, that's that's one way of attracting them to your garden. So, hope that helps. But lots of grass piles, lots of brass heaps like this, you know, piles of twigs, dead hedging. It's all great habitat. And obviously a pond.

[00:49:35]Grass snakes will eat frogs, nes toads.

[00:49:38]Uh, they love ponds. So, and they're very good swimmers, grass snakes. So, having a pond also helps a lot. So, I hope that answers that question, Shannana. Uh, obviously, if you've got any more questions, let me know. or if any of you have got any questions, then drop them below. I'll do my best to answer. Um, and if you're enjoying the video at this point, please do feel like you should subscribe or I hope you feel you should subscribe because there's lots more videos I've got to come from this place. Some of the projects that I'm already highlighting that I've got coming up. Um, and give the video a like if you enjoy it. And now this is the block of privet. This isn't wild privet.

[00:50:11]This is kind of a uh v a variety of privet, but it does flower. And I had a hummingbird hawk moth on this last year.

[00:50:19]Um, and this is where I flushed a woodcock from not too long ago, which is absolutely brilliant. And it went shut off, went straight down the edge of the hedge down there. Um, I'm not going to go up into that part of the garden.

[00:50:29]There's not much to see up there. It's kind of open lawn for the dogs to run around at the moment, but I am going to be doing some really cool things for that. There's a big project coming up in that part of the garden. I'm effectively looking to turn that part of the garden into a kitchen garden, sort of walled garden, um with formal features, formal beds, greenhouse, which I've already bought, just not put up yet. Um so, lots of walling going in and yeah, I've got a lot of lot of plans in time. So, um yeah, job for another day. There's many of those. Um my trusty ride on mower, good old Countax C600H for those of you that like your machinery. Uh these things are brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

[00:51:08]Um, this is one that's got a Kawasaki engine. Um, and I love it. It's 13, 14 years old, and you wouldn't tell. The previous owners really looked after it.

[00:51:20]Uh, so I'm very, very pleased about that. Um, right, let's go and have a look now in the main part of the garden again at the pond, and I'll walk you through the gate.

[00:51:39]I'll come back and close the gate shortly because the main reason I put this fencing in was to basically separate the garden um from the dogs.

[00:51:46]So, I didn't want the dogs coming in here and obviously running wild through all the wildlife and especially with Percy and Mrs. Percy. There is a second Mrs. Percy by the way. We don't know where she's nesting yet, but uh Nikki's seen her on the ring camera going around and uh yeah, she is somewhere in the garden, but I haven't seen her recently.

[00:52:05]Um, but yeah, we think there are possibly two pheasant nests, which is pretty cool. Um, so let's now finally, come on, Joel, get round to it. Go and have a look at the pond. All right, let's do that. But first, actually, there's Percy. Look, you see him just down there just poking his head up above the bank.

[00:52:31]I do love them. They're such characters.

[00:52:33]They really are. Again, I know they're not native. I know they're big chickens.

[00:52:36]I know they go around and eat all our invertebrates. But it's not his fault that he was brought into this world.

[00:52:42]It's it's he didn't have a say in it, nor did he have a say in where he was hatched or released. So, you know, I'm just embracing him along with Mrs. Percy. Now, this part of the garden uh is new as well. Let me come around this side because this is a little woodland border that I created recently. Planted up recently. Uh put a larch tree in there and an older in there and one of the roses. Again, this is in previous videos. So, if you've missed any of those, go check them out where I've been planting these, but I haven't done a full video on the planting of this um kind of woodland border yet.

[00:53:20]Um mostly because I haven't had time.

[00:53:23]But uh uh it's really coming into its own now. We've got the things like the Honesty, which again is looking absolutely beautiful. Had uh orange tips and brimstones on this recently. And it was Nikki's idea to put in some of these uh little logs upright, which I really like. Um because there are or there is the possibility then of getting things like lesser stag beetle. Um we're slightly too far north for stag beetle.

[00:53:47]Um but you know chafers um or the Maybugs which you might start seeing shortly in your garden and um rose chafer beetles a brilliant emerald green beetle. Uh and all those will be on as lavi underground um eating sort of rotting wood. So yes we added a few logs in here of which I have quite a few as you can see. All these came from down at the compost heat where we've just been.

[00:54:11]Um and I've got loads of stuff in here.

[00:54:14]Uh, you know, Fox loves the red campion now is coming into flower. Look at that.

[00:54:18]Beautiful.

[00:54:21]Didn't quite get my phone out in time to get uh a shot of the brimstone on that earlier, but um yeah, really nice. And all this bank has now been seeded with wild flowers.

[00:54:34]Um so yes, wild flowers and grasses, I should say. So, let's have a wander around now to my favorite little spot and have the longest drum roll in history so I can reveal to you my new wildlife pond.

[00:54:52]How's about that?

[00:54:54]Well, it's taken me weeks to build. In fact, months to build. I started this back in August when I started stripping off all the soil. Made all these banks around the edges, which I've already explained, I think, in previous videos.

[00:55:07]And then yeah, recently I I got a friend of mine in Gareth who I've worked with for many years and he helped me build all the wall in there. And yes, it's now complete. It's now an entire ecosystem.

[00:55:24]Raggedy Robin there coming out looking absolutely beautiful.

[00:55:32]Love ragged Robin. Just looks like someone's been at it with a pair of scissors. hence the name.

[00:55:38]Um, but yes, so this is definitely a labor of love. It's been a long time in the making and I couldn't be happier. It is just an absolute joy to sit here now and watch this.

[00:55:51]Obviously, I'm not done yet. I'm going to be putting a a deck area in here.

[00:55:55]Now, I've deliberately not seeded any of these pathways yet for the reason that I'm putting a deck in here. Plus, it was getting too late. Uh, it just wouldn't have germinated. Been a waste of money.

[00:56:04]Um, so yes, these two chairs are going to be replaced with a deck and then the chairs can go back on top. Um, but it has many, many features.

[00:56:14]Obviously, my classic dragonfly and hopefully one day kingfisher perches.

[00:56:19]Um, lots of logs for rotting habitat for things like dragonflies to lay their eggs in. And of course, the stepping stones. I really wanted to create some stepping stones across this pond. So, it's not two ponds. It's actually one pond. Um, one piece of liner. And it is, yeah, everything I've ever dreamed of in a pond. So, I'm very pleased with it.

[00:56:46]Let me know your thoughts. Let me know what you think, if you like it. Um, hopefully you do. And, um, yeah, I've got high expectations from this pond. And I'm really hoping that the swallows for one are going to come going to come and start using it shortly to sort of drink on the wing, sort of skim down and sort of, you know, they open their mouth and sort of get a bit of water in and then fly back up again.

[00:57:12]So I made it big enough for them.

[00:57:15]Um, so yes, and it's already teeming with life. So what have we got in it?

[00:57:21]Well, there are pond skaters. There are there Speak of the devil. Where are we?

[00:57:28]There. Look, you see right in the middle.

[00:57:32]In fact, that's live pawn skaters mating.

[00:57:36]That is one pawn skater on top of another. So, there are definitely pawn skaters due to be a few more by the looks of things. Um, I've got back swimmers in here and water boatman of which, yeah, there's one down there actually.

[00:57:53]So you see just coming to the surface now in the middle of the screen.

[00:58:00]There you go. I always get them muddled up. The back swimmers and the water boatman. They're slightly different, but yeah, they're here in good numbers.

[00:58:11]Um what else do we have? Oh, the other day, uh Nikki messaged me to say we have some new guests in the pond, and they are the new um of which there are a few in here now. smooth nes or common nes. Um, in fact, there's another one that's a whly gig on the surface. Can you see that little thing? How they don't get a headache, I have no idea, but I think I'd be vomiting if I was going round in circles that quick. But they are just fantastic, interesting little creatures. and they just spend their entire time whizzing around like whirly gigs on the surface of the pond.

[00:58:53]Nightmare to try and film, especially when you're on five time zoom. Anyway, yes. Um, so there are some nudes in the pond which I really want to show you.

[00:59:01]So, I'm just kind of waiting because before long they will need to come up for air. So, if we give it a minute, they will be up. But, uh, yes. So, we have the word gigs, we have pawn skaters, we have I had a water measurer the other day which is a bit like a stick insect.

[00:59:22]Um, but is absolutely stunning. It's a lovely little creature. It walks around on the surface of the water measuring for vibrations and then eating little insects that it finds. Uh, so cracking cracking insect. Um, oh, there's a new.

[00:59:38]Let's go and get it.

[00:59:41]Oh, I don't know if you can hear Percy in the background doing his little purring noises.

[00:59:47]There's a new in the water there. If you can see that looks like a male. It's got a rather deep tail. Males at this time of year have a lovely bit of sort of blue and red on the tail for attracting a female. And they do this uh cracking little thing where they kind of arch their tail back round almost so it's touching their own body and then kind of move it from side to side in a rather vigorous fashion. And um yeah, he's gone under one of the water soldiers for a bit of cover now. Love that. Uh so yes, so the uh the display the courtship display on those is quite interesting. Um I've got my larger water lily. I've got coming up down there. And yeah, I could just sit by this thing for hours. Well, I intend to after making this video and just enjoy it on a day like today because it is rather special and something that I put a lot of effort into. It's obviously all sorts of plants that I've put in around the margins.

[01:00:57]Yes. Okay. Okay. Oh, there's a nuke just coming up there. Look, see, it's got a little bit of air and heading back down to the depths of the pond.

[01:01:10]Yeah, fascinating. Uh, it's so easy to spend so much time by a pond, as I'm sure many of you will appreciate. Uh, so let's go around now and have a little look.

[01:01:21]Oh, before we do go over the stepping stones, I'm just going to tread delicately on this bank to show you this common bookthorn because this is again one of the ones that has been peppered with eggs. I mean, look at that. This is just what have we got there? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight eggs just there. So, more brimstone eggs. These haven't been laid for more than three or four days now. And these these bookthornne um I've got three common bookthornne up here and then an older bookthornne over there. So yeah and then all of this bank I I haven't mentioned uh I have planted up with a variety of plants. Too many plants to name. Uh lots of natives, lots of non-natives. I've also seeded it as well and I'm looking forward to showing you that uh when it's coming into its own. Uh planted another crab apple the other day. This is one that we had uh a little while ago which is I can't remember the variety. It's a compact variety though. Um it's not the native but it's a lovely lovely open flower as you can see and it's so attractive for what I hope to be green hair streak butterfly in time. They love nectaring on crab apple. Lots of my favorite in this bank as well. Things such as this bird's foot trefoil.

[01:02:44]So yeah. Okay, let's go and have a look at the the pond across the stepping stones.

[01:02:54]Your first guided tour across the stepping stones.

[01:02:58]So, yeah, it's actually, as you can see, one water body. Um Nikki and I designed this so that it was a variety of habitats, you know, so we've got many different kind of depths in here. It's sort of mid depth areas, deep areas, shallower areas. Um, and then this lovely little kind of chalky bit through the middle, which um, the sun's in the wrong direction really. Let me go around this way and then I can show you the other section. I've got all my dragonfly perched in as you can see.

[01:03:35]And the fringe water liies are now reaching the surface if you can see those just there.

[01:03:42]And I can't wait for them to start spreading and creating more cover. But obviously with the NES turning up, it's a big testament to the health of this pond.

[01:03:52]I'd not seen them in the garden before, but that's not to say they weren't here.

[01:03:55]Obviously, there's lots of habitat round about for them. There's the rock rocks that I've put in on the other side of the garden now along the fencing that we looked at earlier. Um, which is great for crevices for them for overwintering.

[01:04:11]they can get out of the frost and things. So, yeah, really nice. And then coming around this way, we have Oh, there's a a new in the middle there. If you saw that, he's gone down now, but um yeah, if I come around here for a minute, you get a good overview of the pond.

[01:04:34]Got a nice stony beach on this end. I'm going to try and set a camera up um if I can by this pond so we can sort of film what comes down. There's already been lots of things using it. We've had stock doves drinking from it. Um Mrs. Percy's been down. Percy's been down. The jack doors have been drinking from it. And it's been such a success. A chaffen is coming down. But of course, we don't know what's coming here when we um when we aren't here. So, I really want to get a camera on this and then I can show you all the wildlife that turns up. Uh, this bit we designed as a bit of a beach for hopefully uh a few wading birds and put some sort of rushes and sedges in there that I I've deliberately gone for a shallower area in here. So, it's a bit more like a wading pool for them if you like. So, I'm really hopeful that who knows in time might get the odd curu oyster catcher.

[01:05:29]um you know something like that turn up maybe one day hopefully.

[01:05:35]Uh but yeah, it's just such a lovely little diverse habitat now.

[01:05:41]And this we sort of put in as a bit of a standing stone. Thought it might be a nice idea to have somewhere where you could sort of walk up to and stand on and then kind of look over the entire pond as a whole.

[01:05:59]And yeah, so 20 years of making these for other people, finally got what I've always wanted, which is a diverse habitat that I can now monitor very often and of course bring you any updates from, which I'm very much looking forward to.

[01:06:21]And with the NES turning up already and the amount of invertebrates that are already here and the birds that are already using it, it's already a success. But this thing is only going to get better.

[01:06:31]And hopefully when all the wild flowers and the grasses have seeded in between the stepping stones and all of that's naturalized next year, it'll be a very different place indeed.

[01:06:44]Now, as I mentioned earlier on in the video when we were walking through what will be the sumpy, please don't start going into your local woodland or parkland and taking branches like this because they are a vital habitat in their own right. They are meant to be part of that ecosystem where they fall.

[01:07:02]And a lot of these branches I have here are ones that I've had for over a decade since my tree surgery days where I have kept them in the corner of a yard and I'm now just repurposing them. So if you're looking for any habitat like this then please go and ask your local tree surgeon. Quite often they'll have some bits like this kicking around a yard that's either too rotten to burn or it's not much use putting through a chipper.

[01:07:25]So please go and ask them rather than remove it from the countryside. It is a vital habitat and we definitely need to be leaving it where it is. I've seen a lot of increase in the amount of dragonfly perches put round pond since I started doing my videos on YouTube many years ago. So, please don't take this habitat from the wider countryside. Now, I hope you've enjoyed today's video. If you have, please feel free to subscribe to the channel. Give it a like because I will be bringing you lots more videos from this Georgian wildlife garden over the coming weeks, months, and indeed years, and showing you exactly what's turning up in terms of the wildlife, how these habitats are developing. And obviously, that's made a lot easier by me now living on site. I can show you much more content from this place as it flourishes. So, thank you so much for watching. I really hope you've enjoyed seeing the wildlife and the habitats that I'm creating here today. Stay tuned, stay wild. I'll see you all very soon.

[01:08:48]La.